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Breivik trying to establish terror network, state says

NTB/The Local
NTB/The Local - [email protected]
Breivik trying to establish terror network, state says
The Attorney General said the domestic terrorist has tried to establish contact with like-minded individuals. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB Scanpix

The Office of the Attorney General (Regjeringsadvokaten) on Wednesday defended the prison conditions of domestic terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, saying that strict controls on the mass murderer were necessary to prevent him from establishing a far-right terror network.

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Officials said that Breivik on numerous occasions has attempted to establish contact with right-wing extremists and has sent letters to people who have expressed support for his actions on July 22, 2011, when he killed 77 innocent people. 
 
Prosecutors revealed Breivik’s attempts to get in touch with like-minded people in their closing statements to the Oslo District Court on Wednesday. 
 
During the proceedings, the court also sided with prosecutors’ request to hold Breivik’s upcoming civil suit against the state behind closed doors. 
 
Breivik is suing the state for “inhumane” treatment, having complained about the use of handcuffs and limitations on his correspondence, among other things, and says that holding him in isolation and limiting his communication constitute human rights violations. 
 
Attorney Marius Emberland on Wednesday categorically rejected those claims and said that Breivik’s correspondence with the outside world “must be seen in light of his political extremism and his desire to establish cells that may contribute to the development of extremist networks.” 
 
Emberland admitted that the controls on Breivik, including the review of all his incoming and outgoing letters, is indeed an infringement on his privacy but still well within human rights because Breivik’s attempts to establish terror networks “harm the vital interests of society”. 
 
Emberland also vigorously defended Breivik’s prison conditions, which he said were “well within” what is allowed by the European Human Rights Court. 
 
“He has three separate rooms at his disposal - his living quarters, a study cell and an exercise cell and he can freely move between them,” Emberland wrote to the court. 
 
Emberland also laid out the other conditions Breivik has in Skien prison:
 
- The convicted killer is given the daily opportunity to get fresh air in an outdoor yard, as well as in an “air space” that is larger than what the prison normally makes available.
 
- Breivik can cook his own food and wash his own clothes.
 
- He receives personal visits and has extensive correspondence and telephone contact.
 
- He has access to a computer, as well as a TV and PlayStation in his room.
 
Breivik complained in a 2014 letter that his PlayStation 2 was outdated and should be replaced by a PS3 and said the games he can play aren’t good enough. 
 
 
"Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is ‘Rayman Revolution’, a game aimed at three year olds," he wrote. 
 
Breivik is serving a 21-year-sentence, with a minimum term of ten years, for the bombing of Oslo’s Regjeringskvartalet (the Government quarter) and the mass killing on the island of Utøya on July 22, 2011. A total of 77 people were killed in the attacks. 
 
His civil suit will take place between March 15-18 in a makeshift courtroom in the prison’s gymnasium
 
A support group for those affected by Breivik’s attacks have encouraged victims’ families to stay away from the “absurd” trial
 
A total of eight witnesses will be called in the case and Breivik himself has been given 3.5 hours to explain his “inhumane” treatment. 

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